“Mads!” Avie is shouting for him this time. “Goddamn it. Where is he?Mads!Let’s go!”
Maddox glances back toward where everyone is waiting on him just in time to see James peek his head around the corner. The bodyguard clears his throat and jerks his head toward the stage. However, Maddox holds up one finger to him.
He crosses the space between us once more and kisses me through the mask.
It’s somehow increasingly sexy to kiss him like this, with the fabric between us. It makes my heart flutter as if that fabric is just another thing keeping us apart and telling us we can’t be anything more than friends.
Screw that.
He lingers over me momentarily when we part, and those slivers of green on his blown, wild eyes cause my knees to weaken.
“I want that tonight,” I manage.
A wickedness rises in his pupils. “This?” he asks, pointing to the mask.
I swallow the dryness in my mouth and nod. “Yes.”
He huffs amusedly and leans in to kiss me through it once more. “I’ll see you after, beautiful,” he says when we part.
I stay back to catch my breath, staring at him as he walks back down the hallway. He glances back over his shoulder one more time when he hits the corner and says, “Don’t lose my soldiers.”
I burst out laughing.
The three fingers he holds up with that last look sends my breath jagged, and I sign it back.
Because I know it’s only been a few days, but it’s true.
Oh, goddamn it, Maddox Keynes.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN - ANDI
AFTER THE SHOW, Young Decay signs autographs out back for a little longer than usual since they aren’t heading out anywhere. I try to get a few photos of them conversing with fans, of Maddox handing the setlist to the girl sitting on the sidewalk, barely able to keep her eyes open as she waits just to get a glimpse of them. I try to get the photos and selfies people take, the tattoos of signatures, and the band emblem on their bodies.
Someone even hands Maddox a Jack Skellington plush.
No one can see the grin on his face, but I know it’s there. It glimmers in the green of his bright eyes when he takes the plush and nudges Reed in the side.
“Hey—check this out,” Maddox says to Reed.
“Ah, no fucking way,” Reed says upon seeing it, his grin wide enough for the both of them. “Do you know how much this guy loves this movie?” he asks the fan.
She laughs. “We heard the radio interview the other day,” she says. “Tonight was the only night we could get tickets, so we knew we had to get this. We were hoping it might remind you guys of how much all of us love you. Nothing someone says about who you might be will change that.”
My stomach is an empty pit.
“Ah…” Maddox scratches the back of his neck nervously.
“I mean—shit, I shouldn’t have said anything,” the girl says quickly. “I just mean to say that we don’t care what your dad—” She pauses and looks around them, noticing a few others have stopped talking to listen in. “I just wanted you to know that we love you.”
A quiet chuckle sounds from Maddox as he signs the record she’s given him. “Guy is a prick,” he says, and I can’t believe he’s steady enough to make light of this. “Doesn’t know how to leave people to make their own choices.”
Reed backs up and wraps his long arm over Maddox’s shoulder, a playful grin on his face. “Some people want to bring down what they don’t understand,” he says. “Just like the protestors out front. We embrace the demons they shun. Life’s too short to live with that kind of hatred. Our Mads here can talk about who he is when he’s ready. Fuck those guys.”
The fans around them laugh. “Fuck those guys,” a few echo back.
I want to hug my brother.
Maddox and I sneak away from the group when everyone goes outside for the full moon. Reed is so wrapped up chatting with their guitarist that getting away from him isn’t too hard.
